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10 Articles

BREAK DOWN THE BREAKOUT

HOCKEY FANTASY POOLS ARE won or lost with your picks in the later rounds of the draft. That’s old information. You’ve been hearing that from us for years. What’s becoming more crucial to your success in these fun leagues, is being nimble and adventurous around the streaky machinations of the Johnny-come-latelys who cross our paths during the NHL season. I’m thinking Erik Gustafsson and Jordan Binnington last season, William Karlsson and Yanni Gourde the season before as classic examples. We know who they are now. We just didn’t know who they were before the light went on. This is how the light went on for me. Not having a goaltender to protect in one of my keeper leagues a year ago, I drafted a pair of free-agent stoppers fairly early on. Playing time…

BREAK DOWN THE BREAKOUT

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

HOCKEY-POOL PEOPLE HAVE never been politically correct. It’s always been about the results, no matter how we got there or who we offended. At one time, we had to be wary of drafting Europeans in pools. They didn’t always assimilate easily into the NHL. There were questions about the longer schedule and their durability, adaptability to the language and culture and how intimidation might affect their play. In the 1998-99 Ultimate Pool Guide we noted, “Scoring by Europeans is more unpredictable than by North Americans. That is an assumption born of statistical analysis, not xenophobia.” Times change. We’re not even hockey-pool people anymore, we’re hockey-fantasy people, and picking Europeans is no longer a negative consideration. Some of us have been at it a long time, but that doesn’t mean we’re old school.…

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

ROOKIES TO FOCUS ON

JACK HUGHES DIDN’T simply break the USA Hockey National Team Development Program’s all-time scoring record, he put it in his crosshairs, drew back, blasted away and blew it to smithereens. Already ahead of the curve following a debut campaign in which he scored 116 points, one shy of Auston Matthews’ single-season record, Hughes became the only player in program history with two 100-plus point seasons when he registered 34 goals and 112 points in 50 games. With that, he left Clayton Keller’s 189-point record in the dust, and Hughes’ 228-point mark illustrates just how dominant he has been over the past two seasons. Add to it that he bested Alex Ovechkin’s longstanding U18 World Championship record – Hughes’ 32 points were one more than the 31 scored by Ovechkin – and…

ROOKIES TO FOCUS ON

FLAVOR OF THE YEAR

LAST YEAR’S SLEEPER CAN be this year’s bust. You land a breakout player with a late pick, he turns a monstrous profit and, the following season, he carries a star-caliber price in pools – then his big year turns out to be an anomaly. William Karlsson went from 43 goals to 24. But not every breakout is untrustworthy. Watch for signs. Let’s forecast 2019-20 for some of last year’s surprise studs. JORDAN BINNINGTON In January, the Blues were in last place and Binnington was in the AHL. By June, he was the starting goalie for the Cup champs. He ranked among the league’s best in almost every advanced metric, from 5-on-5 SP to high-danger SP. Nothing about his rookie year looks fluky. VERDICT: BUYER BELIEVE ERIK GUSTAFSSON At 27, the obscure D-man goes off for…

FLAVOR OF THE YEAR

FOR THE SECOND YEAR in a row, I lucked out by drawing the No. 1 pick in The Hockey News’ NHL Mock Draft. And for the second year in a row, I took the Edmonton Oilers’ point-gushing Connor McDavid. It was tempting, to be sure, to select Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov. He has a vastly superior supporting cast that helped him claim the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer in 2018-19 with 128 points, the most since Mario Lemieux posted 161 points and Jaromir Jagr had 149 back in 1995-96. But in the end, I think McDavid has a higher ceiling – if anyone is ever going to approach 150 points again, my money is on him. The McDavid vs. Kucherov debate is intriguing. McDavid has a 100-point running mate…

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE

AS PLAYERS GET BETTER at a younger age, it’s worth noting how many phenoms are already on the radar. Yes, it’s strange to be placing expectations on 14-year-olds, but the reality is these kids have earned the hype with their elevated play. When it comes to keeper leagues, you need to snag these youngsters before your rivals have heard of the Shane Wrights and Connor Bedards of the world. Here’s when you can expect some high-end prospects to be ready for NHL duty. Ages are listed as of their anticipated NHL arrival. 2019-20 JACK HUGHES C, 18 The No. 1 draft pick in 2019 joins an offensively jacked New Jersey squad: Taylor Hall, P.K. Subban and Nico Hischier will keep the heat off the kid as he learns the ropes. Not that it…

STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE

PLAYOFF PAYOFF!

AS THE SECONDS TICKED down to end the 2019 Stanley Cup final, the most thrilling underdog story of the year became official. Jeff Craigmile had finally won the Playoff Payoff Association fantasy league – after around 45 years of trying. Sure, the St. Louis Blues winning the Cup was a good story, but the win by Craigmile was even better, at least in his world. The victory by Craigmile, 61, was commemorated with a special jacket, presented by the previous year’s winner. You thought it was an emotional moment when Tiger Woods pulled on his green jacket at the 2019 Masters after more than 10 years without a major? Imagine winning a green jacket after 45 years of futility. This was the first year the jacket, nicknamed the ‘Blue Jacket,’ has been…

PLAYOFF PAYOFF!

ULTIMATE GUIDE - Teams

ABBREVIATION GUIDE MINOR PRO AHL-American Hockey League (Bakersfield, Belleville, Binghamton, Bridgeport, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Hershey, Iowa, Laval, Lehigh Valley, Manitoba, Milwaukee, Ontario, Providence, Rochester, Rockford, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, Springfield, Stockton, Syracuse, Texas, Toronto, Tucson, Utica, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), ECHL-formerly East Coast Hockey League. OTHERS CHL: OHL-Ontario League, QMJHL-Quebec Major Junior League, WHL-Western League. USHL-United States League. NCAA: ECAC-formerly Eastern College Athletic Conference, HE-Hockey East, NCHC-National Collegiate Hockey Conference, WCHA-Western Collegiate Hockey Association. International: Bel-Belarus, Cze or Czech-Czech Republic, Fin-Finland, Ger-Germany, Kaz-Kazakhstan, Rus-Russia, Svk-Slovakia, Swe-Sweden, Sui-Switzerland. WJC-World Junior Championship, USA (under-18) or U.S. NTDP is USA Hockey National Team Development Program. STATISTICS A-assists, C-center, D-defenseman, G-goals, GAA-goals-against average, GP-games played, GPG-goals per game, GK-goalkeeper, GT-game-tying, GW-game-winning, Ht-height, H/R-home/road, L-losses, LEA-league, LW-left winger, Min-minutes, Min/Pt-minutes per point, Corsi (percentage of shots directed at…

ULTIMATE GUIDE - Teams

ONE YEAR OR NO WAY

IN FREE AGENCY THESE days, term is everything. Spending big money on a player isn’t considered a risk if it’s on a short-term deal. During the July 1 deluge, 80 UFA contracts were signed, and 36, or 45 percent, were one-year pacts. Of those one-year deals, 15 came in at the league-minimum salary of $700,000. Teams are wisening up and playing it safer with their UFAs, giving them low-risk deals – or no deals at all, opting instead to promote players from within the organization. That’s why, as of mid-July, we saw so many viable NHLers stuck in UFA mode, some of them destined for September PTOs, the obvious exceptions being blueliner Jake Gardiner and elder-statesman forwards Joe Thornton and Justin Williams. Teams may still have a use for Stanley Cup-winning…

ONE YEAR OR NO WAY

Fantasy Can Be Reality

“WE SHOULD’VE WON GAME 7, but I left Brad Marchand out of the starting lineup by mistake,” said no coach ever. “The key to our championship was Patrick Maroon racking up 20 minutes in penalties tonight,” said no coach ever. One thing that always bothered me about standardized fantasy-pool formats: they don’t mimic the real thing. The best GM doesn’t always win the league. Instead, it’s the person best at remembering to set a lineup or stream goalies by picking up a new one every night. And players who do something that hurts a real team – taking penalties – are considered assets. There’s been a shift toward more “realistic” stat categories, as many leagues have replaced PIM with hits and blocks, but that’s not enough. I take it further in my leagues.…

Fantasy Can Be Reality

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